A Dragons Initiative
by Joeseph13
Summary: The war for this system will last for 50 years. The Purple Dragons lead the defense against the forces of Chaos, Xenos, and even their own Imperium. Been a long time since I published anything. Since that time I have updated my homebrew chapter and it's history, so if you have read my previous work Belief, then just cancel out everything about Sons of Dorn and Bishops. Pls review
1. The Drop

Srgt. Corren double checked his sync to the Battlenet as his pod was secured for drop. Inside was Squad Purgation of the Purple Dragons 19th company. Corren examined each and every member of his squad within the drop pod, knowing all of their histories, each as mighty as the next. All within were veterans of many campaigns, and all had earned the title Sternguard. However only three were of the 1st company.

To his immediate left was Eckhart, the squads Deathwatch veteran. His service to the Imperium had been long, overshadowing even Correns illustrious career in the chapter, and his many honors could be seen marking his armor and weapons. The greatest mark was the Incinerator that was maglocked to his side, a gift from the mighty Brother-Captain Ignis of the Grey Knights. Though the unique fuel that had come with it had long since been ignited against the foes of humanity, the weapon could still spew forth righteous fire into the throws of battle.

To Correns right was Xephos, another esteemed hero of the chapter. Though he had served less time in the chapter than that of Corren, he had garnered much respect within the 19th company. He was the only one amoungst Squad Purgation that wore a suit of Mk.8 "Errant" power armor. Maglocked to his side was a purified heavy bolter, cleansed by Xephos himself after taking it off a fallen Havoc that nearly killed himself and his previous squad during his time in the 20th company. Opting to advance in the companies rather than stay as a Cleanser, he honored his old company with a pauldron marked with the heraldry of his previous captain.

And then Corren himself. Born to a noble from a far away world, he had known that his fate would not be one of the millions that were just blinked away, never leaving their mark on history. While his birth gave way to high position within the Astra Militarum, he was instead chosen to take part of the centennial Culling. The first of many victories started there. Now, having fought and killed uncountable foes and pushed through over 12 major campaigns, Corren earned the right to become one of the fifteen sergeants of the 1st company. Having earned the name Black Baron for his signature chainsword that hung off the side of his utility belt, Corren was well-respected and known within every company.

Grasping his combi-flamer tighter in his hand, he slowed his breathing anticipating the coming drop. All members of Squad Purgation were synced and ready for drop according to the readout on his helmet. With one last exhale, Corren mentally sent the green light to the pod master. Then he felt the void suddenly rise, as he and his men fell towards the war-torn world below.

The sensation was familiar, dropping through the atmosphere and the screaming roar of the massive turbine that controlled the decent to the surface. Corren had experienced it a hundred times before, and a hundred time before that. He preferred thunderhawk assault, but Hive Primus was under attack now, and could not afford the luxury of waiting. So the expedition leader Captain Ajax had ordered the drop of half a company via drop pod. The Battlenet showed that all seven pods had released without problem, sending fifty marines, Corren's veterans, and a command squad with Captain Aurelius and Tech-marine Khadra.

An eighth pod had been prepared for Dreadnought pilot Ciro, but the machine spirits of the mighty war mech had not been kind. Ciro had wanted to drop into the thick of battle with his brothers, but had instead opted out of the assault. With his mech out of commission, and not willing to take another that did not belong to him, he would be coming in on the second wave after the first landing.

The pod cleared the atmosphere, and where the directionless feeling of the void was gone, the squad now felt all to well the pull of gravity. The turbine and retro thrusters of the pod worked hard to withstand the strong winds of high altitude, keeping their trajectory straight. The noise was deafening, thundering against Corren's ears. Of all of his drops, none had ever produced such noise. He quickly started reciting a mantra from his youth, the one thing that had stayed with him through his centuries of service, to combat the dark sensation welling up within him. The base feeling that came from his genetic heritage, screaming for him to relish the sound, and to amplify it by removing his helm.

Then the flak came. Intel had supported the theory that the enemy knew of their approach, and had tried to set up defenses expecting their arrival. Corren had never been shot down in a pod before; the speed of descent made it near impossible to accurately hit the target, much less damage it. The foe must have had advanced targeting arrays however, as he saw one of the pods go from green to orange, signalling a major hit. What surprised him more was when his own pod suddenly rocked from impact. At first he thought that they had touched down, but quickly realized that they were still many thousands of meters above the ground.

"We've been hit,"exclaimed Pytor, the newest of the squad. New was a relative term however, as he had been a part of the squad for the past 2 campaigns.

"They've hit the central thruster," stated Xephos, his voice calm against the noise. "They are good. Makes me curious as to whom we are really fighting here."

"Xephos, can we still land," Corren questioned, keeping an eye on the time before landfall. "I would rather not die without so much as even seeing the enemy!" Eckhart nodded his agreement, as he placed his hand over his Incinerator, muttering a small prayer to whichever benevolent spirit might be passing.

The Dragons weren't religious by nature, choosing to adhere to the Emperors teaching of science and logic. This put them at odds with the Ministorum on multiple occasions. However, after fighting for centuries of heated battles, and surviving by the scrape of ones skill and luck, one would eventually come to believe that something was out there, protecting them and aiding them.

"Fire the retro-thrusters to angle us about 22 degrees to your left," started Xephos, quickly running the mathematics of drop podding through his head. "No wait, make that 21 degrees. It will take us further away from our intended landing zone, but I would like to think that it will save our miserable hides from an inglorious death."

"Is that all you have to give me!?" demanded Corren, even as he activated manual control over the pods decent with a quick thought. Already he could feel the pod angle away from the rest of the battle group, and a quick calculation from the machine spirit showed the new landing zone, many miles behind the enemy lines.

"Well we will find out whether it was worth it or not momentarily. T-10 until impact!,"Pytor exclaimed, gripping his harness in anticipation of impact. Corren fired the retro-thrusters at full power in trying to slow their decent, but barely felt the influence. Once more he muttered his homeworlds mantra, and readied for impact along side his battle-brothers.


	2. The Landing

The first impact was what damaged Corran's helmet, causing him to lose sight through the lens. It also severed his connection to the Battlenet, meaning that he wouldn't be able to stay updated on the war that Aurelius would be landing into.

It was the second impact that knocked him out momentarily, his Catalepsean Node shutting down a large part of his awareness to minimize damage during the crash. When he awoke, there was only the broken whirring of the pods turbine, its machine spirit whining in pain from the damage sustained.

Given his orientation, he surmised that the pod had landed properly, if not gently. After a few seconds of regaining his senses, he reached up and ripped his helm from his head, allowing him to view the red-lit interior of the pod. Taking a cursory look about him, he saw many of his brothers shaking the fall from their senses. He felt particularly bad for Eckhart, who had not worn a helmet for the drop. It was difficult due to the current lighting, but Corren was sure he saw a patch of congealed blood on the side of Eckharts face.

There was a sudden bang, followed by four more bangs, as the releases of the pod doors detonated, throwing the doors out for the squad to disembark. Corren and his squad quickly released their harnesses, and proceeded to venture out into their landing zone.

They had crashed into what appeared to be an Administratum building before the war had started on the world. Hundreds of loose leaf sheets littered the floor, with many falling from the floors above. The architect of the building was imperial standard, with many aquila motifs along the wall, and many shrines to the God-Emperor or one of his many Saints lining the walls. There were a few corpses scattered through the floor, adepts who had failed to get away in time to avoid the onslaught.

Looking up, Corren saw that they must have crashed through at least two other buildings before coming to rest here. He could hear the sounds of war outside, though it sounded many blocks off. From what he remembered from the Battlenet before his helmet was damaged, their new landing point was half a click westwards.

"Squad Purgation, sound off and perform comms check," Corren said as he checked his wargear to make sure that nothing else had been damaged during the landing. Eckhart started, followed by Xephos, Pytor, Lutharis, Xaveus, Jinio, Llivos, Romatus, and Eremis.

"Squad Purgation is green sergeant," Eckhart stated as he finished securing his Incinerator. The squad had fallen out of the pod by at this point, quickly securing the ground floor of the building, before the enemy could surprise them.

The enemy of this world was not a xenos species bent on destroying the world, but that of cultists and traitor legions who sought to corrupt the world and use its resources to further fuel its rage across the Imperium. The leaders of the enemy had yet to be revealed, which had caused no small amount of unrest amongst the Purple Dragons who had come to this system. Normally an enemy of this nature would make sure that it was known exactly who was attacking them, but so far only reports of many champions had risen to show any kind of leadership within the traitors force.

"I've got movement on the auspex," started Eremis as he closely inspected the handheld scanner in his hand. "Judging from the patterns of movement, I would say that they are not friendlies. I count almost sixty moving in on us from the southwest." Corren didn't have to issue orders for his squad to move into action, with Xephos, Llivos, Jinio, and Pytor all grabbing what loose furniture they could to block the shattered windows and create cover. The rest moved to cover the main entrance on that side of the room, lining their bolters up and preparing to open fire.

They didn't have to wait long. Xephos had just returned to the firing line when the first of the human cultists came charging through the door. Corren quickly dispatched if him with a snapshot from his bolter, but two more immediately took his place. The entrance quickly become clogged with bodies of rebels, none of which had even made it five feet into the building. Then Squad Purgation was hit from the northwest with heavy stubber fire.

The attack was more of a surprise to the astartes than anything else, the shells slamming into the ceramite armor and knocking over Lutharis, but not much more than that. However it was not something that could be ignored. enough shots could potentially pierce even a suit of power armor, and obviously had enough force to hinder a veteran marine. Xephos and Pytor quickly shifted their aim, the combined strength of Xephos's heavy bolter and Pytor's storm-bolter shredding through the rockcrete walls. They were rewarded with the death rattle of many cultists, but the heavy stubber had fulfilled its purpose in pulling a part of the veterans firepower off of the main entrance. This allowed the main force to push into the building and spread out, thinning the focus of Squad Purgation's firepower.

Then from the southeast came more heavy stubber fire. The majority of the bullets failed in meeting their target, and the gunner sprayed his rounds with abandon. Xaveus took him out with a single burst from his bolter, pulping the cultists upper torso. The foe was pressing into the room now, with nearly forty bobbing and weaving trying to evade the veterans shots. To Corren's pride, not one shot was wasted, each bullet fired with cool precision. But there was just so many of them.

Eckhart had joined the fray now, with the enemy having gotten within range of his Incinerator. He sprayed molten promethium onto the advancing humans, dousing half of them in fire. And yet they still pressed onwards. Corren realized that there was some other power behind these cultists, something driving them to meet death at Squad Purgations hands. Suddenly the room was filled with the loud and unrelenting sound of pure noise. Correns felt his ears begin to bleed from the sudden noise. He couldn't tell which direction the noise came from, as it surrounded and reverberated across the entire floor. The cultists fell to their knees and began weeping with psychotic smiles across their faces before their heads exploded and their chests collapsed within.

To late Corren realized the purpose of the cultists, and now he and his men were paying for it. After what seemed to be hours, the noise stopped, though by the time Corren realized it, all he could hear was the echo of the horrible noise bouncing around in his head. Eyes blurry, he tried to make out his surroundings. He had fallen to the ground, hands cupped around his ear in a vain attempt to protect himself. He could make out many of his battle brothers also on the ground, though could not identify them. Then he saw the source of the sound.

Five indistinct shapes walked into the room, their armor a blend of purple and black. Not the deep violet of the Purple Dragons, but the distorted purple of the Emperors Children, traitors from and age-long past. Corren felt his anger swell within him, and grasped for his combi-weapon, intent on destroying his true foe. Already his vision was returning, and he could see that four of their number carried the foul weapon that their legion had become know for, sonic blasters. At the front was the obvious leader of their group, wielding an alien pistol and curved power sword. Corren couldn't hear what they were saying, but understood that these cretins didn't know who they were dealing with. He felt his hand grasp around his weapon, and swung it up to release a torrent of shells unto the traitors.

It was the noise marine to the champions left that died first, the shells ripping through the traitors helmet and detonating within. Another died to burst heavy bolter fire from Xephos, and a third engulfed by Eckharts Incinerator. The champion responded, letting loose a sound more devastating than that of the sonic blasters, paralyzing Corren before he could bring down another. The sound seemed to emanate from the champion himself, and had such a force that the resounding echos filled the room and snuffed the flames that burned at the noise marine to his right.

Corren screamed in pain as the champions scream, his siren, torn at his mind. This was different from the sonic blasters that disoriented him and attacked his senses. This attack targeted his sanity, his purity. To Correns disgrace, a small part of him relished the pain and reveled in the madness that began to cloud his mind. The same part of him that shared a link on a genetic level with the very same champion who was attacking them.

Corren wanted to die in that moment. His hands gripped his skull as if trying to claw out his every brain. Behind the noise he could hear laughter, and he was positive it wasn't coming from either of the surviving noise marines. The noise stopped, and Corren found himself on the ground again, curled up in the fetal position.

Looking through tear and blood stained eyes, he saw the three remaining traitors approach, the champion aiming towards him. The two noise marine flanking him made for the rest of his squad, pulling their pistols from their holsters. Corren tried to move, tried to get to his combi-weapon, tried to fight. But the champion had reached him before he could get to the weapon. It was less that a yard away, but it could have been a mile away for all the use he could have gotten out of it. Corren heard the snap of pistol fire and knew that two of his men were dead. Cursing, Corren muttered a small prayer to his ancestors, begging that these traitors meet their end on this planet, even if it wouldn't be at his hand.

What came next was hard to describe, as the cosmos answered his prayer. There was the sound of crackling energy, a flash of blue, the smell of burned meat. The noise marine to the champions left stumbled back with an astartes fist sized hole where his hearts used to be, his armor melted through and slagged by extreme heat. Corren didn't hesitate.

He tackled the champion, knocking the traitor down to the ground and slammed his fist into the exposed neck joint in the armor. The room was suddenly filled with noise once more, but instead of the screaming howl of sonic blasters, its was the thunderous tempo of bolter fire. The champion threw Corren off before reaching for his power sword. He never made it, as Corren had drawn his chainsword and thumbed the activation rune, bringing the weapon to life, before bringing it down to end the champions.

His senses cleared. His hearing started to return, and his sight cleared. How he had fought in his state, he couldn't understand, as he should have been paralyzed by the champions attack. Movement from the north cause him to swing around, his chainsword brought to the ready. What awaited him was no foe however, but astartes clad in red and black. Corren blinked to clear his eyes, and recognized the colours of the Emperors Hands, sons of Sanguinius. Corren had fought alongside them before, and knew they had a presence on the planet, though he had not fathomed that they would have come to him and his squads rescue.

There were five of them in total, equipped with jumpacks and bolters, except for one who wielded a plasma gun, and the commander who wielded a powerfist and stormshield. The red of their armor almost seemed to shine against the grunge of the ruined building, and the commanders blonde hair seemed to be have a halo around him. Corren shook his head, and tried to speak.

"My name is Argastas, and I am a sergeant of the Emperors Hands 3rd company," began the leader of the assault marines. The man motioned to his squad to secure the area before moving slowly to Corren, arms spread out to show no intended harm. Corren realized that he was still posed for combat, his chainsword still roaring for blood. Slowly he released his grip on the chainsword and deactivated it, and dropped his stance. Argastas reached him and rested his mighty fist on Correns shoulder and embraced him.

When Argastas released him, Corren surveyed his squad. Jinio and Llivos were dead, the holes in their helmets showing the entry points of an executioners bullet. Xephos had fallen into a coma, and Eremis had ripped his helmet off to claw at his head. The blood had already clotted, but the marks would probably stay, scarring and shaming him for his moment of weakness against the enemy. Corren knew to well how Eremis was feeling, and ran his hand along his mohawk, feeling for any marks on his scalp. Argastas was saying something, but Corren wasn't paying attention. He blinked again trying to regain full control over his senses.

"-and after that, we should reach our lines. It will be more difficult returning, as you will have to be on foot,"Argastas finished, looking over to Corren searching for response. Corren didn't have any, and merely nodded weakly. He reached down and recovered his combi-weapon, recycling his clip for a fresh one. Eckhart had slung his Incinerator to lift Xephos, while Pytor and Eremis collected the fallen forms of Llivos and Jinio. Corren collected himself, before look towards Argastas and motioned that they were ready to leave this memory.


End file.
